


Spirit of Insanity

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, discussion of abusive friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 09:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20225248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "The first spirit that Jack ever encountered was not one of the guardians, but the Spirit of Insanity. Whether they have always been the Spirit of Insanity or were corrupted somehow is up to you, but my guess is that they travel the world and try to eat the worst of insanity/strong emotions that would cause severe mental turmoil in children. Maybe they went to eat away the worst of the grief of Jack’s sister.But this spirit is friendly, upbeat, willing to try anything and laughs at anything, so they and Jack quite easily become friends. They hang out together all the time, maybe they even invite Jack to stay with them at their home.For the longest time, this spirit was Jack’s only friend, only companion outside the wind. So of course he was going to be loyal, not only during their Mania episodes - which were the fun side - but also through the times when they suddenly became paranoid and violent towards Jack...[cut for length]"This fill contains Tooth and Jack talking mostly generally about Jack’s complicated feelings regarding his friendship with Insanity. At the time of the fill they have been out of contact for a while.





	Spirit of Insanity

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 8/29/2016.
> 
> Here is the rest of the prompt: "...More so, in fact, because those Paranoia episodes disappeared almost as quickly as they came, and the Spirit of Insanity would become internally abusive instead, weeping about how sorry they were for hurting Jack and hurting themselves instead - scratching at their arms, pulling out their hair, mumbling about suicide - and they needed Jack to be there to take care of them while stuck in Depression, not matter how emotionally draining or what kinds of things they said to make Jack go away.So; Jack is happy with the friendship, but it is an abusive relationship physically, mentally and emotionally, with the added problem of Jack being dependent because Insanity is his only friend. Jack was only sort of aware it was wrong, but had absolutely no idea what to do and no one to turn to for help -
> 
> \- Until he became a guardian, and the others decided to take an interest in their newest member’s personal life, and decide they cannot leave things as they are.
> 
> TL/DR: Jack befriended the Spirit of Insanity, whose great to be around while in Mania, physically abusive when in Paranoia, self-abusive and severally emotionally/mentally draining/abusive while in Depression. But as his first and only friend (except Wind), Jack doesn’t want to leave Insanity and wouldn’t know how to get help even if he wanted to. Then the Guardians find out. And decide to fix it.
> 
> +Subtle signs of insane behavior by Insanity. Physically trying to wave away voices by their ear, staring, easily distracted, laughing at things that even Jack cannot find funny.  
++The guardians struggle to find a suitable solution, since they can’t beat up the Spirit of Insanity for being insane and expect it to find anything, before realizing they are going to need to completely separate the two and let Jack recover mentally for him to realize just how wrong the friendship is."

“How are you feeling today?” Tooth asks.  
  
Jack looks up at her from his cup of tea. The Guardians had recommended that he stay at the Tooth Palace for a while, as the most open of all their realms, and as a place that was, for his particular situation, fairly neutral. Tooth and her fairies took care of memories just as they were, without trying to color them one way or another. Jack knew that pretty well, now, as Tooth had taught him how to use his teeth to access all his memories, not just the ones from when he was alive.   
  
There was a lot of stuff there that hadn’t happened the way he thought of it now. There was a lot of stuff in there he just didn’t want to see at all.  
  
“Honestly?” Jack shakes his head. “Pretty angry. And I don’t know what to do, really. I’m angry at myself, because how could I have ignored or forgotten so many of the things that happened with Insanity? And then when I think, no there are good reasons why you didn’t recognize what was going on, I don’t stop being angry. I just start being angry at you, North, Sandy, Bunny—why did it take so long before anyone did anything? Why didn’t anyone notice? Even the wind—even the wind could have done something! And then, then it all bleeds over into anger at Insanity. How could they—why did they—” Jack puts down his tea and rests his head in his hand. “But I don’t want to think that way. I don’t want to be angry with them. I know that they didn’t want to hurt me. They didn’t have many friends, either, and because of who they are it’s even harder for them to find any so, like, what am I doing now? I’m hurting them by staying away like this, and they don’t deserve to be hurt. They don’t!”  
  
Tooth folds her hands and turns toward one of the windows, where she can see the perimeter of fairies that will let her know if Insanity tries to visit Jack. “You’ve told me about some of your memories,” she says. “In them, you told me that you see Insanity hurting you. So. Jack, I don’t want to say anything about whether Insanity deserves to be hurt or not. But I know that you don’t deserve to be hurt, and that happened regularly around them.”  
  
“But I could handle it. I had been handling it, and I don’t think they have anyone else,” Jack says.   
  
“But you shouldn’t have had to handle it,” Tooth says. She takes a deep breath. “I understand why you wouldn’t want to leave someone alone. But keeping yourself from being hurt is a good reason to avoid someone.”  
  
“I know the logic of it, but that doesn’t really help,” Jack says. “They’re my friend. Or at least they were? I need to talk to them. I need to explain myself. And avoid them? How am I supposed to do that? I mean, really. I’ve got to go back out into the world soon, and they’ll be there, wondering why I haven’t been there. What am I supposed to say? I mean, I don’t know if telling them not to hurt me would make sense. They’ve never been malicious, it’s just part of how they work. I don’t think it’s fun to be Insanity.”  
  
“No…” Tooth draws all her focus back to Jack. “I know you can’t stay here for too much longer, if you’re going to act as yourself, and as a Guardian. I never expected that. What I hoped…I hoped that by having a chance to examine your memories, you’d be able to see that you had been hurt, and to learn to recognize when you might get hurt again, so you’d know that you should leave or come to one of us for help, then.” She pauses. “I’m sorry we didn’t do anything sooner. None of us are very experienced in handling situations like this.”  
  
“It just doesn’t seem fair to Insanity,” Jack says.  
  
“Maybe not, but we—I—want you safe, first,” Tooth says. “I don’t want you even thinking about being fair to them until you can be fair to yourself.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tags from Tumblr:
> 
> #we've got three wildly different doozies of prompts this week folks


End file.
